When she was in her teens, she watched her mother die from it. Later, she was there when terminal bone cancer claimed her sister. Seven years ago, she learned she had cancer.

But Edythe Schoenbach isn`t afraid of cancer -- she`s attacking it and winning.

``I spoke to one girl who had cancer who said she felt molested,`` Schoenbach said. ``I told her, `It isn`t over, you have a future.` And when they hear it from one cancer patient to another, they believe it.

``That`s when I feel like I have done something.``

Those who work and are volunteers for the American Cancer Society`s Broward County Unit say they know how much Schoenbach has done for the 1986 fund- raising effort.

``Other volunteers see how strong she is, and they gather strength from her,`` said Frances Dunaief, a residential coordinator for the Broward unit, who works with Schoenbach. ``She`s a fighter, she knows she`s going to lick this.``

Schoenbach is helping to coordinate the fund-raising program, called the 1986 Residential Crusade. It is expected to involve 5,000 volunteers who will go door-to-door from Sundaythrough April 20, distributing information kits about cancer and seeking contributions.

Schoenbach`s personal fight began seven years ago when the 69-year-old woman was a computer bookkeeper and self-described workaholic for a local printing firm.

Then cancer struck.

As she lay in her hospital bed recovering from a breast cancer operation, she asked her boss to bring work to her.

``My boss said, `How am I going to do the books without you?` So there I sat in the hospital bed, doing the payroll,`` Schoenbach said.

She went back to work, but the fight was not over.

During a trip to Europe a couple of years ago, Schoenbach noticed some stiffness in her leg. One doctor misdiagnosed it as arthritis. A bone scan revealed bone cancer -- similar to the type that had killed her sister.

A metal pin and eight screws were inserted in her right leg. Cement filled a bone that had become like a toothpick.

But she didn`t quit fighting.

Just after getting out of the hospital last year, Schoenbach collected $300 in donations going door-to-door in her neighborhood.

``People would say to me, `If you can go around with a cane, then I`ll give you $10 more than I gave you last year,` `` she said.

Although she retired three years ago, Schoenbach`s volunteer service with the Broward unit has increased. Putting much of the unit`s records into computers has kept her up until 2 a.m. lately. She says working hard at trying to find a cure is theraputic.

Dunaief said many other cancer patients who use a cane are afraid to be seen in public -- but not Schoenbach.

``I can`t sit idle. I know this crusade is just a drop in the bucket, but it shows we`re trying to do something,`` she said.

Schoenbach also is a volunteer with her husband, William, twice a week at Memorial Hospital in Hollywood. She sells candy, magazines and flowers, but doesn`t visit with cancer patients much.

``I was going to help cancer patients (at the hospital), but I`m not built that way. It`s very hard to talk to terminal patients. . . .,`` she said, her voice trailing off. ``. . . it`s just like my sister.``

Tears filled her eyes as she spoke of her sister, who died 10 years ago. She used to take her sister to therapy and learned how important a positive attitude is for a cancer patient. Schoenbach said her sister did not have a good attitude.

``When you have cancer, you work harder for it. I know that someday we will find a cure and I`ll be OK,`` she said.